THE BRISTOL SOUND IS A MELTING POT OF GENRES THAT REFLECTS THE CITY’S VARIED CULTURAL CORNERSTONES – AND IN THE 90s, IT BECAME A WORLD-BEATING BRAND…

STEVE HARNELL

Music journalists and cultural commentators love a reductive term to describe complex genres. It’s an easy soundbite that can gather multiple strands into an easily digestible single portion.

Does Bristol have a coherent, identifiable sound? Bands and artists from the South West’s biggest city have always baulked at the idea but for a portion of the 90s, a whole raft of ground-breaking albums emerged that seemed to have a certain languid commonality.

Much has been made of the relaxed groove of the Bristol Sound, mistakenly ascribing some kind of spliffed-out West Country torpor rather than the reality of it being a natural amalgam of the city’s musical roots. The Bristol Sound is a melting pot of multiple influences – notably the early punk and post-punk scene that birthed Mark Stewart’s The Pop Group and Rip, Rig + Panic (featuring a young Neneh Cherry) alongside the city’s omnipresent soul, hip hop, reggae and dub. It’s a natural expansion of the beats and bass foundations of hip hop that can add orchestral arrangements, brass, synths and woodwind. In fact, in Bristol, anything goes – as long as it’s got a groove.

THE WILDER SIDE 

Bristol’s Black community has played a hugely significant part in shaping its nascent sound. St Paul’s Carnival, the world-renowned celebration of Caribbean culture that’s been the beating heart of the city each summer, has shaped emerging musical talent over the past five decades. The much-missed DJ Derek spun reggae tunes for 40 years across the city, a hugely influential figure who epitomised Bristol’s love of Black music.

Central to the early development of Bristol’s new musical stew was The Wild Bunch, a soundsystem modelled on the Bronx crews of DJs Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash that was drawn from the St Paul’s, Montpelier and Bishopston districts of the city before eventually morphing into Massive Attack. With DJs Grant Marshall (Daddy G) and Miles Johnson (DJ Milo) at the helm, local graffiti artist Robert Del Naja (3D) soon joined to MC over their tracks. Also joining the ranks was Andrew Vowles (Mushroom), rapper Willy Wee and asthmatic loose cannon Adrian Thaws (Tricky). Nellee Hooper, later to produce the likes of Soul II Soul, Madonna and Björk as well as helm Massive Attack’s first two studio albums completed the seven-piece collective.

Honing their style via appearances at St Paul’s Carnival, all-nighters, warehouse parties and as mainstays at influential Bristol bolthole club The Dug Out in Park Row – its distinctive orange walls and sticky carpets are still wistfully talked about 35 years on by nostalgic locals – The Wild Bunch morphed old school hip hop with electro, reggae and soul influences, but all delivered with a defiantly British flavour.